Patricia Stoltey

Author

Attacking the Jungles, Both Outside and In

By:

When I posted that I was finally getting back in the groove, I didn’t realize what had been going on while I sat around waiting for my eyes to start working again.

My four garden boxes turned into jungles of weeds, overgrown giant marigolds going to seed, unharvested and wasted green beans that now look big enough to feed the squirrels…if only they liked green beans as much as they like the seed in my bird feeder, and depleted tomato plants whose remaining small green tomatoes will probably not ever turn red. Fried green tomatoes, anyone?

The kale and Swiss Chard survived and are still producing new tender leaves. I found them as I pulled off all the holy (or is that holely) giant outside leaves that had been ravaged by nasty little chomping beasties. There are a few beets in there somewhere, if only I can find them. And I still have delicious little carrots to harvest a few at a time and eat as snacks. And cabbages. I have four cabbages that looked pretty beat up on the outside, but turned out to be compact and sweet inside. I love cabbage. One of my favorites is to fry shredded cabbage with chopped green pepper and a couple handfuls of smoked sausage pieces. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but I use a little bacon grease to fry the cabbage for extra flavor.

The house and my office look worse than the garden. Being one who will use any excuse to avoid housework, the only things that got done were those my sweet cleaning gal takes care of for me in her 90 minutes visit every other week.

And worst of all, my novel in progress hasn’t progressed very far.

And my blog has been so neglected I’m embarrassed.

The only real writing-related things I took care of were most of my duties as co-editor of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog and a couple of tasks need to promote Dead Wrong, my suspense novel that will be released November 19th by Five Star/Cengage.

Getting back in the groove wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I’m making progress.

More from my site

Comments

  2. I’m with ya sistah! Back in Labrador and trying to find my way. Packing, unpacking, oh I’m so glad I don’t have to think about it for ten months. I did finally get to work today. Be kind to yourself! I just made myself West African Peanut Soup with kale – yummy.

  3. Raquel, I don’t even have small kids to spend my joyful time with, but still manage to make my summers too full of extra stuff.

    Rebecca — not sure why clutter bothers me so much when I’m so good at creating it.

    Hi Rachna. Yes, the garden boxes are wonderful. This year I added giant marigolds for color so I’ve had more butterflies and colorful moths than usual.

    Eileen, you hit the nail on the head. And running rampant is a great description for what has happened out there. I need to step away from the computer and go pull weeds.

  6. I sympathize! I was away from home most of the summer, and also came back to a sad garden. The chaos indoors is just the result of unpacking and normal stuff, but it’s in my way (mentally if not physically) when I try to work. But at least everyone is back in school, so I’m out of excuses!

  8. Susan — I never seem to have trouble finding excuses. I can only say I hope my garden and flower beds look a lot better next summer than they did this summer.

  9. This was my best summer in years as far as keeping up with my garden and my flower beds. You had a good excuse for the weeds. I looked for excuses some days but couldn’t find any.

  10. Hi Mason — I guess it would help if I would step away from the computer….

    Margot, every time I take a break, I end up wondering how on earth I do all this stuff. I can’t figure it out.

  12. Sometimes it seems take on a life of their own overnight. You’ll have the jungle (outside and in) tackled before you know it. Like Madeline said, ‘one step at a time.’ Good luck.

  13. Alex — that’s a great description — I keep worrying that I might find bigger and uglier beasties in all that mess (outside, not inside).

    Hi Madeline, I’m trying to convince myself of that, too. The really sad part is the waste of all those green beans. I should have sent my husband out to do that chore…

  14. The tortoises would chomp those weeds for you in no time. Of course, they’d also eat all the vegetables, too, so maybe not a good idea….

    Take it one step at a time. What doesn’t get done, probably wasn’t that important to begin with…or so I like to tell myself….

    Madeline @ The Shellshank Redemption