All it takes is to lay our eyes on things “made with love” and our problems go away. At least for a little while.
Like my neighbors Teresa and Mika who keep daily stresses of the pandemic at bay by growing fantastic vegetable gardens all over their front yards. Everyday their loving hands care for their charges that grow prolifically for anyone to see as they walk or drive by.
As I returned home from an errand the other day, I saw Teresa with her pretty sun hat hidden behind corn stalks. “You look like a farmer!” I called out to her with a smile. She looked so happy as her Indiana roots were kicking in. Her garden brings back her childhood days on the family farm. Her mother was in charge of planting while she and her sister Tina were the harvesters. Her front yard never looked so happy. Earlier this week I walked over to see a gorgeous baby watermelon on the vine. I’ve never seen watermelon “in the wild.” And several weeks ago, Teresa gave us a bag of fresh romaine and red leaf lettuce to enjoy for dinner – what a delicious difference in fresh-picked!
Mika next door couldn’t wait to start her garden. She had grown one at her previous residence and her green thumbs were itching to plant another. The plants seem to grow by the hour. She even brought in haystacks for fertilizing. It’s lovely to see Mika enjoy her plot of land that she has turned into an oasis. And what a treat it was the other day when she gave us picture perfect zucchini and yellow squash.
I look forward to watching their gardens grow.
Then, Louie made a run for Jacqueline’s favorite bread at Seed Bakery in Pasadena where Joseph Abrakjian makes bread with “blood, sweat and tears” the Old-World way using levain and flour that he mills himself on a stone mill – then bakes the bread in an oven he brought from Sevastopol off the Black Sea. The sourdough wheat loaf, olive bread and baguette were as pretty as a still life painting.
