Inchie Monday--RHYTHM INCHIE

When you have rhythm--it's a sort of daily thing--you have it every day in every way. It's in a song you're singing with the radio...it's in your feet when you hear a Michael Jackson tune...it's in the flowers swaying in the wind...rhythm is engrained in the time of year and the way we go about our day. 

My teeny tiny Inchie!

This week's Every Inchie Monday theme, rhythm, is a fabulous theme to sit down and interpret in some kind of artistic way. Not to mention, a piece of art that must be one-inch by one-inch. (Visit www.everyinchiemonday.blogspot.com). My first visual thought of rhythm was Fred Astaire's tap shoes. But when you love someone like Fred Astaire, and you've watched enough of his dance performances, it all seeps into your skin and into your personal daily culture--it's more than the feet. 

So, back to the days. All I have to do is look at my calendar--the way I highlight, circle, draw, make notes (in spite of technology, I can't let go of my regular paper calendar journal)...to see the rhythm of my days. There's creativity, chores, plans, events, busy work, children, friends, family...there's a big star on the night I'm going to see Elton John! There's choir practice...sometimes play practice...and a definite void where there should be more violin practice. I love this, daily life thing...and so my Rhythm Inchie, the Rhythm of Days, begins with a piece of a calendar that used to be stark and white, and is now layered with the special, joyful, messy, mundane, fun, organized, musical, magical marks that symbolize the rhythm of everyday life.

I found the cutest lemon cucumber seeds this weekend--and a wonderful stash of beautifully inexpensive bulk seeds at my hardware store. Love it love it! Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch and Grow!

Moving Day for the Garden

There are days when the winter winds are arriving too soon! So in come the plants onto my long greenhouse sunporch. My hard-working husband has cleared the outdoor herb, veggie and cutting gardens and from now until May, I'll water my garden indoors!

But wouldn't you know it, we are having a string of beautiful 70-degree days now. It's a tough call, but I'm not lugging heavy rosemary plants and buckets of impatients back and forth! They've arrived in their winter home.

I really miss the fresh garden basil and tomatoes. But I've got an herb nursery going on--the baby basils are coming along, there's fresh dill, and robust Italian parsley making a comeback.

Next month, I'll plan an evening with my gardening catalogs and a mug of hot tea--dreaming of next spring's garden. There will be more cabbage and squashes and maybe a pumpkin. But oodles of tomato varieties--I've been inspired by a country lady to go beyond my canned tomatoes and salsa and do a pasta and a pizza sauce!

"The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on."

--Emily Dickinson

 I think all my eating, writing, dreaming and stitching somehow starts in the garden 

whether it's indoors or out.