Backyard Farmgals

This week's snippet is really exciting: I graduated with my bachelors degree, summa cum laude, in plant science, cropping systems!   WooHooooooo! It was a perfect day, minus the hot stage.  I was absolutely thrilled to walk across that stage; it was so much better than when I got my nursing degree.  Plus I got to walk with two great friends.  I have made two of the best friends a person could ask for.  These two guys have been my support, my shoulder to cry on, my hug when I need one, my study group, and are always a great laugh.  We walked together, one right after another, with our families and professors cheering us on. The best part of the day was when they asked us to recognize those in our lives that have been so supportive of our journey through school.  I have the most amazing hubby!  He comes home from work so I can run to school, he listens to all my frustrations, he helps me when I need it, and makes the stress melt away...

Chocolate... What more does a girl need when tragedy strikes?  Maybe a really REALLY good cup of tea, a good English movie, and a cat or dog curled up on your lap.  I know a chunk of my family would argue that nothing goes better with tragedy and chocolate than Diet Coke.  Since I don't drink soda more than the occasional root beer, I am sticking with plain and simple chocolate. My aunt died yesterday.  She was so young.  51.  I have so many memories of her.  She was my gorgeous, fun aunt.  My mom's sister. I was grabbing my kids knees and tickling them this morning, realizing that as I did it, she is the one who used to grab my knees and tickle.  I was the flower girl at her wedding that forgot to throw the flowers; she let me throw them on the way back down the isle (smile).  She taught me how to ski.  I remember skiing with her at Alta and every guy on the mountain was after her... in her jumpsuit.  It was the earl...

I have discovered that the things I tend to plant in the garden are things that have a piece of someone attached to them.  Not literally, of course, but in the sense that there is a memory or a flavor, a smell or a shape that brings a flood of memories into my mind.  Seeing as I grew up in the garden and was raised by different people at certain moments each in their own gardens, I have hundreds of memories in the garden and with food.  Garlic is one of the most powerful memories for me.  In my mind garlic is the equivalent to Grandpa Wood. Grandpa Wood has been one of the most influential people in my life.  He was practical, knowledgeable, wise, earthy, sustaining, unafraid, dignified, and tough.  He loved to garden.  He kept a salt shaker in the garden for any of us swiping a tomato to eat on the spot.  He talked me through my first gardens, congratulated my triumphs, and taught me when I failed.  When first married, we bought th...

Military training in Alaska in the 1980's as a Green Beret. My dad is the studly one on the right. Father's Day is a little bittersweet for me.  I lost my dad a few years ago, and since then this day has been a bit hard.  There are so many memories that flood my mind throughout the day, things from my childhood, traveling the world, my wedding, my dad in a wheelchair looking at my children for the first time - little babies tucked in his arm. My mom, dad, and me in 1979.  I am adorable, don't you think?!? Like everyone, there are good and not-so-good memories.  I have a few favorites.  When I was about six I remember making play dough pig noses on the back deck with my dad me dressed in pajamas on a hot summer night, all of us giggling together.  Another memory is the first night we moved to Taiwan, I was 10 years old and couldn't sleep because of the time change.  My dad stayed up with me, eating ice cream and telling me all about Taiwan and...