March 17, 2009

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell
Spring break is finally here. Jim is off for the week and we have all kinds of things that we would like to get accomplished by the weekend. Jennifer is home for the first time since she left for Hays in January. It was good to see her and hear about all of her classes and her stories about working at Wal-mart.
I met my neighbor on the road today and stopped to visit with her and she reminded me that it was St. Patrick’s Day. I had not given it a second thought. St. Patrick’s Day is the day that we are to wear green- eat corned beef and cabbage- and most importantly we are to plant potatoes. My Grandma Cary always had a large garden with all kinds of vegetables and two rows of flowers. One year that sticks in my mind is the year she had Charlie Lenertz plow her garden for her as he had a ford tractor that would fit in her garden and he was able to plow the ground up for her. Then we had to rake it all down. Granddad must have not been well and able to help, but Mom and Dad and I were there to lend a helping hand. Dad got Grandma the seed potatoes and they cut them up so they would be ready to plant. This particular year we planted potatoes by the light of the moon on St. Patrick’s Day. I thought that was kind of odd since we did not plant anything else at night and we were to wait at least to the 15th of April to plant the rest of the garden. Grandma always wore a gardening hat and gloves. She wore a hat she got when we went to California in Disneyland. It was an aqua blue and white straw hat with a large brim and the scarf that went around the top part of the hat, then down through two holes in the brim and she tied it under her chin. Of course, she always wore a corset, a dress and stockings to whether she was to work in the yard, garden or if she was going to town. I do not think that she ever owned a pair of tennis shoes- she usually wore black leather shoes with a small heel. She was quite a lady.
I have said before that I do not plant a garden as it would be wasted time and money as I would kill it before it even got started. But with the economy the way that is now maybe I should put in a little more effort and try a little harder. But maybe this is just the Spring Fever talking. I always think that I will do better this year - but then the hot summer winds blow and it is just plain hot out, the plants wilt down and the weeds sprout up and the fun of the garden is lost and I no longer have to desire to keep it going. But Grandma never lost her zeal to keep puttering around with the plants, hoses, fighting the heat, the bugs and the gophers. What can I say- she was just a better woman than me.