A Pocket Full of Ginger

Today I had all sorts of things I was excited to do. It's 9:30 at night and I still haven't managed to do them all. But this morning after doing the house chores, making a pumpkin pie and dairy-free bread, I left the pie cooling and the bread rising and headed outside. What to do first?
Watering came first - I've now added one glass jar with the tip down into the lettuce plants to help combat the already-dry ground.

Then I planted the ginger. I got a bit - just a little bit - at the store yesterday. It was so little that once I researched it, I wasn't sure it even had the buds that would make it grow. It did. Two of them, in fact. I read that it needed shade away from direct sunlight and compost and immediately thought of the little pile of compost by the garage that I had left. I dug a hole, filled it with compost and planted the ginger. I can harvest it next Spring or let it grow another year for a larger harvest. I suppose I'll figure out what I want to do then.

The compost pile yielded another surprise - two, in fact. See them? What are they? I have no idea. Cabbage, I think. They were happily growing in the compost I'd left in the open air and now they are happily growing among the salad greens. Speaking of, I cut my first baby greens today for supper. The beans are coming up, parsley is growing around the tomatoes. I thought the okra would take it's sweet time, but today while watering I looked closer and noticed tiny, uniform sprouts.

Other plants aren't doing as well. Remember the container where I planted the lettuce and the cat thought was a litter box  The lettuces came up but were spindly. I wondered if they needed sun so I moved them out. A few are hanging in there, but many withered. Likewise the five or six lavender plants have dwindled to three in the long container. They still have friends living in the egg basket, so we'll see what happens.

I broke down and went to the local hardware store to pick up a bag of potting soil and compost peat, which I've been layering to plant the new things. What did I plant?
Very good question. I'll let you know tomorrow. I wrote them all down on clothespins that showed what was planted where. See, I'm planting the seeds in those shoe organizers that slide under your bed. That's what happens when you don't have a lot of things to plant. Val helped and even filmed a bit while we were working.

Today I've been battling a slow internet to figure out all the different seeds sent to me - and where to put them. I started as many as I thought I could transplant and I'll be blogging about them as I go.
I stopped the planting to teach piano, then returned under hurried circumstances as the sun was going down. I now have five jars sitting on my kitchen window. In these I planted the culinary herbs that came: basil, curly parsley, oregano and cilantro.
I plan to put more outside, but as long as I'm experimenting, I may as well try all different things. My weed-tomato plant now has two friends who are living by the flame grape trellis.
I also decided to take my experiment spirit for a packet of peas and the limabeans. They are planted in containers on the front porch where I'm going to let them trail instead of climb. We'll see what happens. I also took the tree container and filled it with soil, then had Val plant carrots. I've never had luck with carrots, but perhaps trying in a container will bring success.

Blossoming Hope

Sometimes a day is full of coincidences that we don't even realize until we reflect on it as a whole. Yesterday was that sort of day. I've been praying about my desire to pursue certification in herbs and nutrition and holistic health. I'm not sure where to pursue that in order to have enough to help others heal. I've always secretly thought having the gift of healing the the Bible speaks of would be my first choice among the various gifts. And in a way, I think I do have it. Not that I can touch anyone and help them heal.
But the desire is there. To help people's bodies heal. To help them work through old emotional wounds. To find their healing in Christ.
Yesterday I went to B. C. and ran into an old friend from college. She wanted to know if I was still singing and if I was still in college. I told her I wanted to pursue holistic healing. She's recently come out of surgery for cancer and went to a nutritionist in a semi-nearby town. She gave me the woman's card, saying I could visit her and see what requirements were needed in order to be able to safely help people. She though it was a wonderful that I wanted to pursue.
When I got home, Val checked the mail and came in saying my seeds had come. I was confused until I realize I had sent out two self-stamped envelopes to two different seed companies who offered free seeds. They came back just a week or so later on the same day. I suddenly had twenty seeds, including some of the herbs I'd been hoping to get, but couldn't afford. Some of them were medicinal.
I wanted to gather enough grass clippings for the compost before they sank into obviation  so I headed out as the sun was on it's downward trek, waving at Mr. H as I crossed the street into our field. The grass was much shorter so it takes longer to rack up a pile, than last time. But I had headphones and was in a fairly good mood. I didn't see Mr. H until he was a few yards away, coming across the field. He was wheezing and coughing, his lungs gurgling and I went to meet him. He pulled two crumpled seed packets from his pocket and handed them over: one cucumber and one lima bean.
I remembered he had said his mother liked cucumbers and I'd mentioned I didn't have any seeds for those. I'm not sure what the lima bean story consists of because he was breathing so hard he could hardly talk. He said he hadn't been doing well and was going back.
So that made a total of 22 new kinds of seeds coming within a few hours of each other.
Maybe it was the "Braveheart" soundtrack making me feel like life suddenly took a higher purpose. More likely it was all these pieces falling into place. But I filled that compost bin, thinking of how I wanted to be able to heal people. To listen to them, bring them into my backyard and give them herbs that could help heal them.
Was that part of God's answer?
He'd been telling me I needed to work on my own health. I'd been praying about how to pursue an education that would make me able to teach with confidence and authority. I love growing things. And I know so many people who are struggling with their health - without finding healing.
As I prayed again, feeling hope and determination rise, I glanced toward the orange/lemon tree.  I'd seen tight buds the day before but yesterday there was one single bloom open, as close to me as it could be. I also noticed buds on the peach tree that hadn't been there.