TheBanyanTree: Let the Sunshine In

[Margaret R. Kramer]

The clouds have parted and glorious sunshine and blue sky have taken their
place.  The temperatures crept up a little bit higher as each day went by
this week.  The rain left behind a sea of green.  The color green is
exploding on lawns and trees everywhere.  Wonderful.

We got our Farmers’ Market plants in the ground this week, completing phase
one of year one for the garden.  Ray and our neighbors (the cat-walker and
the guy next door) have been working on a fence for the big garden plot to
keep out the digging beagle.

The cat-walker is our neighbor (he lives two doors down) who walks his black
and white kitty on a leash.  I’ve caught him walking his cat when I’m
walking my dog in the early morning hours.  If the cat isn’t walking, he or
she is watching us as we amble by from its rocking chair perch on the porch.
The cat-walker and Ray have collaborated on several outdoor projects so far.
It’s always nice to have a partner in crime when working with tools and
wood, I think.

The cat-walker also put his garden tiller together and tilled out our big
plot.  We went to the nursery the other night and bought a ton of plants and
flowers – phase two of year one.  The plot is ready, the day will be warm,
and I’ll be getting dirty as dig in the black soil.  It’s difficult for me
to believe that I will have the golden light of the sun in this yard.  I
didn’t have to buy just shade-loving plants this year.

The other big news is that we abandoned by the big box chain grocery stores
last night and went to a small, family-owned grocery in our neighborhood.
Ray thought the prices were OK, so we gave it a try.  The store had
everything on my list, just not so much of it.  We were in and out in less
than a half hour, plus a young man brought our groceries to our car.  The
store reminded me of the grocery store my mother (my dad never went grocery
shopping) would shop at – small and friendly.  This wonderful city
neighborhood is continuing to surprise me.

For example, the boys were riding their bikes around the block while I was
walking Axel.  The older one deliberately smashed his bike into the younger
one’s, and the younger one’s bike chain slipped off the wheel.  I walked the
bike home along with Axel.  It wasn’t a big deal, but one of my neighbors
saw me and offered to drive me and the bike home in his truck.  I said no,
because I was just around the corner from my house.  But I thought in my old
suburb-like neighborhood, no one would have even offered to help, they would
have just drove by, even if I was sprawled out in the street, and then they
would have drove over me, so intent they would be to get to their castle
house, where no one could disturb them.

I’m going to play in the sunshine today, planting our lovely flowers and
green plants, continuing the process of turning our city castle into our
home.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so
it's all right.
~Maya Angelou